Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Medicago truncatula
Common name
Barrel Medic
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Used as a forage plant. Naturalised in grassy areas, disturbed sites, roadsides, and other habitats. Sydney area. Tablelands north and east of the ACT. Western Slopes. Rarely elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced annual herb, often prostrate, with branches to 0.8 m long. Burr with many straight to curved spines. Stems sparsely hairy. Leaves alternating along the stems, compound, with 3 leaflets, each 0.5-2.5 cm long, 3-20 mm wide, upper surface sparsely hairy, lower surface hairy, margins toothed, tips rounded or somewhat pointed with a terminal tooth, stipules toothed or with narrow, pointed lobes, lower surface hairy. Flowers yellow, pea-shaped, with 5 petals, 2 almost joined together to form the keel. Standard petal 4.5-7 mm long. Flowers in 1–5 flowered clusters. Flowers Sep.–Dec.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Medicago~truncatula (accessed 24 January, 2021)
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